Easy Dinner Ideas Blog

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Recipe - thick and chewy!

Do you like thick and chewy cookies? The extra brown sugar in this oatmeal rasin cookies recipe makes these cookies soft and chewy. Keep them in the oven a bit longer if you like a crisp cookie! The recipe includes directions for making sure the raisins are nice and moist and you can even make them a little boozy if an over 21 crowd will be eating them. These cookies freeze well and travel well. You can even pack them up to send a homemade sweet treat!

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Cheeseburger Sliders: Make them for a snack or a meal!

Yes, I do admit eating a few sliders in college. No reason not to serve them now, especially with this easy recipe that calls for cooking the been in a thin layer in the oven!

These little sliders can be served for a hearty afterschool snack, a game-day appetizer or on a plate with a salad and fresh fruit for a meal.

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Baked Fried Chicken: All of the taste with none of the mess!

Although I love a nice crispy piece of fried chicken, it's just not something I normally make at home. Too much mess and too much splattering!

Enter Baked Fried Chicken! This is a mainstay recipe in my house. Lots of flavor and crunch and you don't need to fry the chicken on the stove. Instead, you bake it in a pan in the oven.

To make clean-up even easier, I'm a fan of using heavy-duty aluminum foil and clean up is a breeze!

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A healthy waldorf salad recipe that can be served as a snack or side dish

Think of this is a retro recipe with a light and healthy twist.

I remember tasting pot luck Waldorf Salads with a heavy mayo dressing and not caring for them too much.

This recipe uses a vanilla yogurt of your choice. If you want you can even use plain yogurt with a little stevia to decrease the sugar content. Great for a snack or warm-weather side dish!

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Aldi Grocery Produce Section

We like to shop Aldi Grocery's produce department. Aldi's prices are what draw us to their fruits and vegetables; yet equally, we're drawn by the quality

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Going Retro With An Easier Way to Make Salmon Patties

Shortly after we were married, my husband was reminiscing fondly about the salmon patties his mother used to make. This wasn't something that I grew up with but I'm always game to try something new. After my first attempt using canned salmon, I new there had to be a better way.

Of course, I could use fresh salmon but I was looking for an easy way to make this a pantry kind of dinner, with easy ingredients that I could keep in the house. Bingo, I figured it out. Click through to the recipe to see the easy trick I discovered to make this retro dish in a much easier way.

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A hot bacon dressing really dresses up this Chicken Club Salad!

Bacon. Did I tell you that this Chicken Club Salad not only has bacon in the salad but it's served with a hot bacon dressing!

If you're a bacon lover, there is a lot of bacon to love in this salad.

Fresh tomatoes, diced chicken, bacon and romaine. A yummy salad that can be served as the main course.

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Slow Cooker Beef Cubes with Mushrooms Recipe - Perfect for Fall!

Fall is here and queue the comfort food!

This Slow Cooker Beef Cubes with Mushrooms recipe qualifies for both.

This recipe uses two of my favorite tricks to produce a dish with flavorful browned meat and veggies that aren't overcooked and limp. This slow cooker recipe also has a rich gravy that's great over mashed potatoes, rice or pasta.

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An Easy Weeknight Jambalaya Recipe

One of the easiest ways to make this Jambalaya recipe on a weeknight is to plan on making sausage the night before for dinner.

Using pre-cooked sausage, some rotisserie chicken and cooked shrimp from the seafood department at your grocery store helps to make this recipe super fast to assemble.

I've included a number of other tips to make this recipe easy enough to make on a busy weeknight!

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A Recipe for Never Fail Brownies!

I don't know what my problem was but for years I couldn't make a decent pan of brownies. they were either too crispy around the edges or too soupy in the middle.

I do like to make things from scratch and a good basic brownie recipe is something that I needed to have. I finally pieced together several recipes and came up with this recipe that never fails me, hence the name. Let me know if it works for you too!

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Stuffed FILO shell appetizer from Safeway

It is easy, elegant , delicious and well-priced

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Do you ever bake with olive oil? Try it in this Pumpkin Squares Recipe!

These pumpkin cake squares are one of my go-to Fall dessert recipes. They're super moist and you can make the recipe in one bowl for easy clean-up! I usually make this recipe multiple times during the Fall because it's so easy to make. You can frost these if you prefer but my family prefers them plain and I even give you a few options to make these lower in fat or to use healthier fats in this recipe!

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A Grilled Turkey Burger Recipe with a few extra ingredients to make them moist!

I've been making turkey burgers for years, and I'll be honest I didn't think there was anything all that special about them. I thought they tasted great and that is why I kept making them the same way I always had. It wasn't until I started getting comments from people like "these aren't all dried out" and I've never had a turkey burger that is moist" that I thought I might be on to something. Ground turkey can be rather bland and if you don't add anything too it it will probably be lacking in flavor and have a dried out texture. I think the secret is adding ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce for flavor and tenderizing. In this case the bread crumbs create a little space between the meat fibers which makes the patties a little less dense. That, at least is my theory! Click below to see the full recipe!

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Oven method for fall of the bone tender bbq ribs!

Living in the midwest there are more than a few days that are just too icky out to grill. Now, I don't even mind shoveling snow to get the the grill but I have my limits when it pouring out! That is how this recipe for Oven Braised Ribs was invented. I made them on a day when it was pouring and they were so good I make them this way even when the sun is out. So tender and the bbq flavor is infused throughout the meat!

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